"System of Play" in Soccer & Business

Great teamwork is at the core of great companies. Leaders demonstrating great team work model the way for other team’s within the organization. A great company starts with a great leadership team! The leadership team sets the tone, models behaviors, generates strategy and guides the organization to success. Although individual talents within a team is vital to the team’s success, the critical value of any team is what happens under the iceberg.  Underneath it all, a team needs to consciously and unconsciously understand and buy in to the unique system of play within each organization.  This is especially true for an organization’s top leadership team. 

Soccer is perhaps the most popular sport in the world. Anyone who has played understands that each player on the field needs to not only understand his or her role, each player needs to know how to play their role within the framework of the team’s system of play (or strategy.)  Any one player who is unaligned creates more work for all the other team members while minimizes the team’s chances for success. The team’s performance is a function of individual talents playing under an aligned, well understood system; that in return maximizes each team member’s unique talents. The answer to the question – is it the system or the talent that leads to success – is that it’s both. You cannot find success by having one without the other. Often we over emphasize the talents and under value the system. But they really cannot be separated. 

There are 11 players on a soccer pitch each with unique skills, personalities, strengths, weaknesses, baggage, dreams, level of commitment, work ethic, tenacity, capabilities, etc. Communication between players is critical both on and off the field. Although the overall goal of the game – scoring more goals then the other team – is simple, the strategy of doing this can be complicated. Although the fundamental things like fitness, skills – passing - shooting, etc. are easily understood, mastering these fundamentals requires constant training, tuning and persistence. But without a system of play, a soccer team (like a company leadership team) is a group of individual contributors unable to maximize the team’s performance regardless of how good each individual talents are. And even with a system of play, it is the right system for that team along with each team member’s buy-in and understanding of their role, in their current environment that maximizes performance.  

Here is an example of roles we could see for a soccer team:

Here is how this looks on the field:

To be successful, we are betting on a goalie who can see the whole field, properly direct players into position, and constantly understands angles and percentages. The goalie can provide a somewhat birds eye view from his position to help other players be best positioned. He also knows the opportune time to spring into action. In our formation, 4 defenders sit in front of the goal – the 2,3,4,5 positions. Our 4 and 5 keep us organized and structured so that we move together as team. They are tasked with destroying opposing team attackers that come through the middle and distributing passes that quickly allow us to get on the counter attack. We will find our 2 and 3 out on their own on the wings shutting down attacking players. Should they fail in their task, our 4, 5 and goalie will come under intense pressure. Our 6 and 8 provide stability both offensively and defensively down the middle of the field. They provide the backbone by which we defend and attack. Consistency is paramount, for an errant pass or missed defensive assignment here often leads to a fantastic scoring chance for the opposing team. This leads us to our 7 and 11. Both hardworking, dribblers who look to take advantage of space on the outside to provide a fantastic service for players running through the middle. This requires ridiculous endurance. This leaves us with the final two positions. The number “10” is our creative mastermind whose main job is to break down the other team defense before the other team knows they are being broken down. And finally, our number 9 who despite making runs all over the place without getting the ball, believes at his core that he can score from anywhere at any time. 

Obviously, there are many different formation that can be used, as there are many styles of play that are used. Deliberately choosing, articulating and aligning the best style of play is at the core of any team’s success…whether it’s a soccer team or a company’s leadership team. Being deliberate about the system your team is intending to play, will provide direction and clarity necessary (but not sufficient) for success. Yes, we definitely need the “horses” to be able to succeed, but as I have said earlier, horses without a system are just a group of talent individual contributors.  

What is the system of play at your organizations? Do you understand how your role connects to the overall success of your team or company? Does each person on your team know what the other person’s role is? Are you able to adjust your system of play as players change, or circumstances change? Can you and everyone on your team articulate to new members your system of play? 

Super imposing the soccer system above, perhaps your leadership team looks like this:

Different companies have different roles depending on the type of business. The point here is knowing what each person’s role is in the context of your business strategy. And understanding that each business has a unique context. Mapping the right strategy (or style of play) to optimize performance is difficult. As is finding the right people to play the critical roles within your organization. I think it’s an iterative process requiring constant evaluation, feedback, reporting and check-ins to help determine if you are on the right track.